Thursday, 12 September 2013

Spooktastic Story! - The Ghost Train

The Ghost Train

By Summer Reading Challenge Reporter, Ruairi Evans


The trains were finishing their day of hard work and the tired drivers were ready to go home for the evening. One driver, called Tony, was heading home when, suddenly, he heard a quiet, spooky and echoing noise somewhere in the fog.

Tony set off on his tank-engine to find out what that noise in the dark, misty night was.

His train tooted to the sound, but then, whatever was in the fog tooted back!

As Tony’s train chuffed in the dark, Tony saw a junction up ahead which lead to a dark and lonely stretch of track.

“Hmm…” thought Tony. “I wonder what will happen if I go that way.” His curiosity, got the better of him and he headed down the horrible line.

The train steamed through closed stations and passed broken, old signals and then, Tony made a shocking discovery. Ahead, parked on a parallel train track, was a decrepit and battered train.

Tony stopped his own train and a man emerged from the fog that surrounded the other steam tank-engine.

“What are you doin’ ‘ere at this hour?” the mysterious man asked.

“I heard a noise and came to find out what made it,” said Tony.

“Oh, maybe it was a ghost train,” said the strange man, laughing.

Tony laughed but he sounded nervous.

“You’d best head home,” said the man, who seemed to be clung to by the night fog. “The track up ahead is damaged.”

“Thank you,” said Tony, and he headed home. When he later told his work friends about the night’s events, they went pale.

“It was a ghost train!” said on of the men. “That was Old Bill you talked to. His train crashed on that line years ago and some say he wanders the track forever more, tooting his broken train’s horn and warning others away.”

Tony laughed, thinking they were joking. But when he drove his engine down the line later that day, he saw that there was no lonely stretch of line where it had been the previous night. There was just a memorial plaque which read:

In memory of William “Old Bill” Jones
A friend to all those on these tracks


Tony shivered at the realisation that he had been saved by a ghost, but smiled as he realised that the man he had spoken to had indeed been a “friend” by warning him of the broken tracks that would have been the end of him and his engine.

Friday, 2 August 2013

Templates for Video Tutorials.


PAGE MUNCHING MONSTER BOOKMARK

Click on the image to download the Monster Bookmark Template. 



Click here to watch a video tutorial of how to make this cute little page-muncher! 

Thursday, 1 August 2013

Page-Munching Monster Bookmark TUTORIAL

Well hello there! 

Today in Swansea Central Library we had great fun making page-nomming book marks. Why not make your own by following this clever-clogs tutorial?

Enjoy! And don't forget to share this with your friends! If you have any. And if you don't then come and make some in your local library! We're such a lovely bunch.

Play in full-screen if you want to see what's going on! If the quality is still squiffy, click HERE to watch it on YouTube!


[The rights to the song do not belong to us, and we do not claim in part or in whole that the music is ours.]

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

#TeamSwanseaSRC

"The Double Doors", by #TeamSwanseaSRC Reporter, Zebulin Anderton

THE DOUBLE DOORS
By Zeb Anderton 
SRC Reporter

“I found it. In a box, in a box, in a box, under my bed.” I said.

“Well, I hope you haven't been reading it late at night.” Mum replied.

“No!” I snapped, flinging it on my bed.

“All right, then. Anyway, off to school, now.” Mum concluded.

The walk was difficult in the snow. It took time, but I was not frustrated to find the school closed. Smugly, I made my way back home.

“School is off! I'm back! It's a snow day!” I announced, figuring that Mum was still there.

No reply came.

That was odd. The door was unlocked. Mum never leaves the house without locking the door. I searched the house. In passing my room, I picked up the book. A thought struck me: the garden. I ran out through the glass doors, finding nothing outside.

I was worried, but reason argued against it. She is fine, I thought.

I turned back towards the house. The book was in my hands. Why did I grab this? I walked back through the double doors, closing them behind me... and opened the book.

It was blank. All of it. Just blank pages. I checked the cover. It was blank, too. I hadn't noticed. A final check confirmed its emptiness.

I closed the book.

*CRASH*

The doors had slammed shut, cracking the glass.

Heart racing, I turned and exhaled. What? How did this happen? I considered the book, just for a moment. Holding it up to fit my view of the double doors, I slowly opened the book. Together, they opened.

The book vanished. The doors went from opening, to engulfing the room around me.

And the world inside the double doors became the world.
Purple walls, orange doors, but otherwise normal mansion. A very, very big mansion. The window gave sight of only rain and lightning, explaining the constant rumbling sounds, all else too low for my suddenly minuscule height to enable me to see.

“Hello” someone said.

I looked around to see a woman at the opposite corner of the room. She was my size.

“Hello?” I replied.

“They are here.” She observed.

“Who? Who are here?” I asked.

“Not who. What.” She clarified, pointing past me.

I turned to discover plants. Human-shaped plants with root feet, creeping towards me.

“Run!” She took my wrist and led me through a doorway... into a water processing factory. This is madness.

A root got my leg. The woman let go of me, and I fell to the ground, arms shielding my face. Instead of feeling the hard ground, I felt a whoosh of air. My open eyes informed me of some random fusion of colours.

And me. I watched as I walked to the window, struggling to see over out. What is happening? Why am I seeing this? How am I seeing this? Another whoosh and I find myself staring out the window.

After a pause, I turn to see the woman again.

“Hel – oh, hi. How-” She began.

“No time.” I interrupted.

I grabbed her wrist and led her through the doorway.

It was not the factory.

We ran into an office, wide open and glass walls, still oversized.

“The water!” She exclaimed, running over to a water cooler.

I follow, being careful to avoid a loose cable on the floor.

She filled little cups from the water cooler. I saw through the windows just sky, all the way down.

“Here, use this” She ordered, passing me a cup of water.

“Help... us...” The plants cried together.

“Don't let them touch you!” The woman told me. She threw the water over them, and they stopped.

I took a good look. They were people. There were people inside the plants, pleading for help. They began moving. They weren't moving towards us, but they were moving down. The creatures were shrinking. They were growing smaller and smaller, then stopped.

I threw the water in my cup over them. They continued shrinking, until the floor seemed to engulf them. Actually, it did. The floor swallowed them up. Except one.

The water trickled to the cable. Lightning flashed passed the windows, and out of the cable. The plant, surging with electricity, stopped shrinking. The electric effect faded, then the creature expanded quickly, expanding through the ceiling and the floor. It was stuck.

The hole in the ceiling showed more sky, still stormy. The hole in the floor showed darkness. It is what sounds it unleashed that was more important.

*WWWHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOO*

“WHO DARES...”
          “WHO... DARES...”
                                      “DARE YOU DISTURB...”
                                                          “DEATH TO YOU WHO DISTURB US...”

“WHO DARES...”

“What now?” I asked the woman, horrified.

“Hello?” I ventured. She was gone. I looked down again. Great piercing eyes looked back. Many, many eyes.

The door in had disappeared, replaced with glass. I began climbing the motionless plant, deciding that up was better than down. Dark mist rose from the floor. It was moving faster than me. I struggled to reach the top.

It got there first.

The darkness turned into colour. The same colours as last time. I saw myself throwing water on the plants. I watched it shrink. A subtler whoosh this time, as I focused to recollect myself. I rushed to the cable, snatching it away from the creatures, and the water.

The same lightning strike hit a window, shattering it. The glass shards fell to the floor, causing a crack along the length of the room. The ghostly howls sounded again.

“This way!” The woman directed, climbing through the broken window and onto an aeroplane wing.

“YOOOUUUUUUUU...”
                             “YOU...”
                                                “HOW DARE YOU...”

I jumped through the window frame, landing on the wing, with a slide. I looked back. There was no office, no mansion. Only sky, and a black cloud, spreading in all directions.

“Help me! Help!” I shouted. She was there, pulling me to my feet. I saw her face clearly in that moment. She was my mum.

“The doors, you must go though the double doors.” She said.

“What double doors?” I wondered.

“The doors on the sides of the aeroplane.” She clarified.

I put my attention to the direction of 'down', which was of no benefit, as it was still just as much sky as up.

She pulled me further up to the front of the plane. We stopped and moved slowly to the side of the curved plane surface.

“I'm going to lower you around and down the side of the plane, and in through the doors.” Mum reassured me.

I held her hands in mine, for dear life, and for the feeling of security. She laid flat on the plane top, and I slid down the round the plane. I spotted the mist, advancing fast. It was going to get Mum. She wasn't going to make it.

“It's going to get you, Mum!” I warned.

“What? What did you call me?” She returned.

I slid further down the side, giving her a look of mixed fear and distress.

“I'm not your-” She said, fading into the death mist.

Suddenly, her hands vanished, despite being out of the mist. I fell down the side of the plane. My elbows found the bottom of the doorway. The mist was creeping down, closer and closer.

Desperately, I hauled myself up and onto the floor. I looked back out to the garden. There was no mist, no office, no mansion. Only the book, leaning against the closed glass doors. The book was closed.


“What are you doing on the floor?” Mum asked.

Friday, 26 July 2013

When The Kids Took Over The Library

On Monday 22nd July, a group of #TeamSwanseaSRC volunteers helped to give Townhill Library, Swansea, a ghastly makeover. 

We had a fantastic day! Here's a short photostory for y'all to cherish forever! 


There you go. The Summer Reading Challenge just made some of you famous! 

Big thanks to the Susans at Townhill, the volunteers and the amazing kids and parents who came along to make the event such a success. You guys rock.

Thursday, 11 July 2013

A furry friend for #TeamSwanseaSRC

Little Basil popped into the library yesterday. He was thoroughly impressed with the Summer Reading Challenge! He was even more impressed that one of the HQ staff recognised him from a Cats' Protection League poster. Basil regretted having to leave the library, but will be happy to make his way home at last. 

Here he is chilling in the office of Central Library while waiting to be chauffeured home. Bless his furry little socks!



I'm rather disappointed that we don't get to keep this cute li'l critter as our very own library mascot, but so happy that he'll be reunited with his owners. All the best Basil, you crazy wanderer, you!


Friday, 5 July 2013